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Twin bombings kill dozens in Nigeria

Blasts in northern Nigerian city of Kaduna were reportedly assassination attempts against prominent cleric and opposition politician.

People stand at the site of a bombing in Kaduna, Nigeria, on Wednesday. Two blasts in the city killed at least 82 people. No one has claimed responsibility. (VICTOR ULASI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

By Robyn DixonLos Angeles Times

Wed., July 23, 2014

JOHANNESBURG—Twin blasts in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna on Wednesday — both reportedly assassination attempts against prominent figures — have killed at least 82 people.

No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but the first attack targeted the convoy of a cleric who has often criticized the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram.

The attack on Shiekh Dahiru Bauchi, who is seen as a moderate, struck about 12:30 p.m., killing at least 32 people, according to police officials. It was the second assassination attempt against Bauchi, following a similar blast near his house in June.

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Bauchi reportedly survived the attack. He was said to have been travelling in an open vehicle along a busy thoroughfare, waving at well-wishers, when the blast went off.

Details from the scene were sketchy, but police chief Umar Shehu told local media that it was a suicide attack.

Shortly afterward, a second blast in a busy part of Kaduna killed about 50 people. It was apparently aimed at opposition politician Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader who was a runner-up in the 2011 elections, according to his son, Musa, who spoke to Reuters from the scene.

Buhari, a member of the All Progressive Congress party, escaped without harm, he said.

Kaduna’s governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, declared a curfew after the attacks. In May, Yero banned motorcycle taxis in an effort to improve security in Kaduna and prevent drive-by shootings.

“Enemies of peace have visited us with their ungodly venom of wanton destruction of human lives,” the governor said, according to a Nigerian newspaper, the Premium Times. “This blast, coming in the holy month of Ramadan, is a clear indication that those behind the act have no iota of fear of God as they have none for the sanctity of human life.”

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